European Union,General,International
Strasbourg, 18 February 2026: Election-Watch.EU has submitted a policy contribution to the consultation process surrounding the Council of Europe’s New Democratic Pact for Europe, responding to the challenges identified in the 2025 Report of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe on democratic resilience across Europe.
Our submission highlights the central role of electoral integrity as a cornerstone of democratic legitimacy. [...]
accountability, citizen led election observation, Council of Europe, election security, European elections, inclusion in elections, transparency, transparency of political campaign
Brussels, 10 February 2026: Election-Watch.EU submitted a written contribution to Members of the European Parliament’s Special Committee on the European Democracy Shield, in response to the draft report on its findings and recommendations, published in December 2025.
The submission highlights the importance of emphasising the importance of electoral integrity in the European Democracy Shield framework, particularly in the context [...]
citizen led election observation, data protection in elections, election security, equality, eu strategy for civil society, european democracy shield, inclusion in elections, transparency, transparency of political campaign
Dhaka, 3 February 2026: Election-Watch.EU is engaged in Bangladesh under the AHEAD (Action for a Holistic Electoral Approach for Democracy) Bangladesh project. Funded by the European Union, the project is implemented and coordinated by the European Partnership for Democracy (EPD), in partnership with the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD, providing support to political parties), and the national NGO Jaago Foundation (facilitating civic and voter education for women and youth).
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accountability, Bangladesh, Bangladesh 2026 elections, Bangladesh Referendum, Constitutional Referendum, election security, inclusion in elections
Vienna, 28 October 2025: Election-Watch.EU, in partnership with its network of experts and organisations, is implementing an EU-funded project within the EU and its Member States to strengthen electoral integrity, advocate for citizen-led election observation, and enhance participation of mobile EU citizens. A Project Implementation Team (PIT) coordinates all activities, including project management, research, advocacy, gender and inclusion, and communications.
To support sound financial management [...]
citizen led election observation, EP elections 2029, equality, inclusion in elections, recruitment, transparency, transparency of political campaign
Brussels, 23-24 September 2025: At FURIC 2025 – Follow-Up on Recommendations’ Implementation Conference in Brussels, Armin Rabitsch, Chairperson of Election-Watch.EU, contributed as closing commentator to the opening high-level panel entitled “Securing Elections in a Weaponized Information Space: The EU’s Response to Authoritarian and Digital Threats.”
The panel brought together Members of the European Parliament, senior representatives [...]
accountability, citizen led election observation, data protection in elections, election security, EP elections 2024, equality, FURIC, inclusion in elections, transparency, transparency of political campaign
Berlin, Brussels, 4 September 2025: Since 2023, landmark legislation like the EU’s AI act and Digital Services Act came into effect, while novel generative AI technologies came into widespread mainstream use. Numerous elections in Europe marked by disinformation and foreign interference (e.g., Romania 2024). Globally, the 2024 Trump re-election and Musk’s takeover of X accelerated rollbacks in moderation and fact-checking.
DRI organised [...]
accountability, Austrian elections, Austrian general elections, election observation, election security, social media monitoring, social media monitoring of electoral campaigns, Telegram monitoring, transparency
Brussels, 9 July 2025: Election-Watch.EU, met with the Member of the European Parliament Mr. Borja Giménez Larraz (European People’s Party (EPP, Spain), rapporteur of the European Parliament on the 2018 amendment of the European Electoral Act (Council Decision (EU, Euratom) 2018/994).
During the meeting, Mr. Rabitsch presented the work of Election-Watch.EU, promoting citizen election observation and strengthening electoral integrity [...]
2018 Electoral Act, 2018 EP electoral reforms, 2024 EP elections, citizen led election observation, EP elections 2024, equality, Spain, threshold, transparency
European Union,General,International
Brussels/Vienna, 19 March 2025: The Electoral Integrity Project and The Westminster Foundation for Democracy organised an online conference on “Electoral Reform: Democratic Principles and Global Practice” on 19-21 March 2025.
Armin Rabitsch and Markus Pollak from Election-Watch.EU presented their paper: What remains to be done: Thinking through Reforms of the European Parliament Elections using a powerpoint presentation.
The paper revisits the historical [...]
2024 EP elections, citizen led election observation, electoral reforms, participatory electoral reforms
European Union,General,International
Brussels, 11-12 December 2024: Elections globally are facing increasing challenges to their integrity, driven by disinformation, cyberattacks, foreign covert operations, and other hybrid threats. This necessitates a rethinking of approaches by both election organisers and election observers to better understand these risks and adapt processes accordingly. For citizen and international observers, this raises questions about whether current methodologies [...]
2024 EP elections, accountability, citizen led election observation, data protection in elections, election security, EP elections 2024, hybrid threats, inclusion in elections, transparency of political campaign